The use of moose in the plural is sometimes problematic. The regular form plural, mooses, is by now rare and its use may be regarded as irksome and uneuphonious. The form meese—formed by analogy with goose → geese—will in most cases be greeted with a snicker, and is thus generally only appropriate in humorous contexts; even pragmatics notwithstanding, because moose has Algonquian origins—wholly unrelated to the Germanic roots of goose, on whose pattern the plural meese is formed—an umlaut plural form is etymologically inconsistent. The living Algonquian languages follow clear pattern: (i) among the Cree the contrast is between Mooswa (singular) and Mooswak (plural), whereas (ii) the Ojibwe contrast Mooz to Moozoog (note that g and k are etymologically identical in this language-family).[3] In ordinary common usage, moose is treated as an invariant noun, which means its plural is also moose (as with the names of many animals, such as deer and fish, which are also invariant); however, this usage can sometimes be considered stilted when a group of more than one moose are considered individually, in which case avoidance of the plural may be the best option, necessitating the employment of a circumlocution.